Oxfordian

Oxfordian (pronounced ox-for-dee-en or ox-for-dee-an

(1) In geology, relating to or describing the Oxfordian age or stage, a geological time interval in the Jurassic period between 163.5±1.0 Ma - 157.3±1.0 Ma or the stage of rocks (chiefly coral-derived limestones) deposited during it.

(2) A theory of Shakespeare authorship; the view that Edward de Vere (1550–1604), seventeenth Earl of Oxford, wrote the plays attributed to William Shakespeare.

(3) A person or thing associated with the town of Oxford or (less commonly), Oxford University.

1920s: The construct was Oxford + -ian.  Oxford was first settled by the Anglo-Saxons and was initially known as Oxenaforda (ford of the oxen), noted in Florence of Worcester's Chronicon ex chronicis (a kind of world history, written in Latin ehich begin's with God's creation and end in 1140); the river crossing for oxen began circa 900.  The suffix -ian was a euphonic variant of –an & -n, from the Middle English -an, (regularly -ain, -ein & -en), from the Old French –ain & -ein (or before i, -en), the Modern French forms being –ain & -en (feminine -aine, -enne), from the Latin -iānus (the alternative forms were -ānus, -ēnus, -īnus & -ūnus), which formed adjectives of belonging or origin from a noun, being -nus (cognate with the Ancient Greek -νος (-nos)), preceded by a vowel, from the primitive Indo-European -nós.  It was cognate with the English -en.

To be or not to be tattooed

Theories the works of William Shakespeare (1564–1616) were written by someone other than the bard began to be published in the mid-nineteenth century and although Francis Bacon (1561–1626) was the most cited alternative, there were others and some suggested committees of co-authors.  Edward de Vere (1550–1604), seventeenth Earl of Oxford, was mentioned in the earlier papers but it wasn’t until the helpfully named John Thomas Looney (1870–1944) published Shakespeare Identified (1920) that Lord Oxford was claimed to be the sole author.  Few have been persuaded but Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and two US Supreme Court judges were convinced Oxfordians.

One of Lindsay Lohan’s tattoos is "What Dreams May Come" which is from Hamlet’s (circa 1600) "To be, or not to be..." speech:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 3, scene 1.